


The Last Angel

by virvatulilla



Series: Short stories about wings [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 11:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11035134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virvatulilla/pseuds/virvatulilla
Summary: a short story about an angel. A prehistoric (?) setting





	The Last Angel

_The forest was silent. It was winter and snow had fallen on the whole world. Stars had come out from their day hiding in the sky above the treetops. I sat in the tallest tree of the forest in a nest, safely tucked beneath my mother's wings._

_I reached out between mother's wing feathers to point at the star-freckled sky. ”A dark moon?” I asked with a small voice. Mother pressed herself on my back to whisper in my ear. ”A black moon,” she whispered softly. ”The most dangerous time of the year to leave the nest.”_

_I turned to watch mother. ”I will never leave the nest,” I smiled, but mother shook her head. ”You will have to leave tonight,” she said gently and pressed her face on my shaggy hair. ”We are the last ones, but there must be someone somewhere, and you must find them. I am already too old to leave.”_

_I tried to tell mother that I didn't want to leave, that I didn't want to be the last one, but it was too late. The nest's bottom broke beneath me and I had to spread my wings if I didn't want to fall on the forest floor. For a moment I flew between the forest and the sky, sweeping back to the nest._

_But my home tree was nowhere to be found._

 

I woke up gasping for air. I was covered in cold sweat and I had to sit up to draw a shaky breath. The events of the black moon had haunted me in my dreams even before it happened many summers ago.

The sun was gleaming from beneath the horizon but still, I started going forward. All daytime would be dangerous to me anyway. Mother had taught me that since I was the last of my kind, greedy humans would want to catch me and turn my body parts into decorations.

Previous night I had flown a little too close to the humans' fires and I had seen them. Their skin was almost completely naked, so in the winter they had to dress in other animals' skins. At least my body and part of my face was covered in fine fur and feathers – there were feathers also in my hair. They didn't provide much warmth in the coldest winters, but at least I could wrap my wings around myself to keep myself warm.

The humans had started following me because I had flown too close to their fires. I had flown faster than usual to elude them. Their black eyes had followed my flight greedily like a hungry owl looking at a field mouse.

I was gliding above a big forest clearing when the sun rose above the world's edge. Markings in the caves high in the mountains had told me that I should fly towards the safe haven on the world's edge. There might be the someone my mother had told me to find.

The sun started to climb on the sky above the wispy clouds. I decided to fly in the middle of the clouds to make it harder for humans to see me. It was colder up there, but I saw my destination better when I was above the clouds. Behind the far away mountains I could see a vast water glistening in the sun. On its shore I would find what I had been looking for so many summers and winters.

 

As the sun was sinking under the world's edge I also started to descend from the heights. My wings were starting to go stiff from the day's long flight, and I would have to rest them for a while. I knew that that night the moon wasn't going to be in the sky. The cloud cover had turned so thick that there would be no stars to be seen from the ground.

I loved watching the stars, because seeing them made me feel safe. I decided to continue flying as soon as I had eaten something. I landed in a tall pine tree, and picked a handful of dark pine cones. I ate the seeds in an instant, but I was still hungry. Pine cones alone weren't enough to fill my stomach after a long flight.

I had to land on the forest floor to look for berries. I found quickly a fresh juniper and ate its berries until I had gotten strength back in my wings. I flew to the pine's top just in time. When I had settled on a branch I heard human footsteps nearby. I took off silently before they were close enough to notice me.

I rose above the thick clouds to be safe from the humans' piercing predator eyes. The sun had sunk completely, and because there was no moon, the star-freckled sky showed itself in its whole grandeur. The star-swan was flying with me towards the safe haven, I had followed it every night. I had only flown for a moment when the northern lights joined me. That night they were white and green like a vernal birch forest surprised by wintry weather.

I flew until the sun started to stretch on the world's edge and the stars faded. The clouds had turned into rain and I felt like I could almost touch the mountains even though they were still far. I descended until my wingtips could brush against the tallest treetops in the valley between the mountains. The area seemed uninhabited, I hadn't seen humans' fires anywhere in the night. I found the tallest tree in the forest and sat on a sturdy branch. Dreams found me.

 

The mountains were overwhelmingly vast and I was dazzled by how white they were in the orange light of the sinking sun. I flew over a couple of mountaintops on my way to the ever approaching vast water. It was so tremendous that I felt utterly insignificant as I was flying between the mountains. I was sure that I had reached the world's edge. The safe haven had to be here, because even the winter had eased its grasp in this place. The trees were green and there was no snow on the ground.

During the evening I got past the mountains and near the shore, so I had to descend. After all, I was arriving on the world's edge and my journey was going to come to an end.

When I finally landed I was right on the waterfront, almost touching it. The water was glistening in the last light of the sun when I dared to embed my feet in the water. It felt pleasant on me, so I waded knee-deep in the water and poured water on my wing feathers.

I hadn't anticipated humans to find me on the world's edge, which is why the noises I heard didn't startle me. I turned to look behind me to see two small humans – I think they were cubs. Both had their pitch-black eyes fixed on me like I was their prey. Because I was captivated by their fierce eyes I almost missed their decorations. When I noticed them, I shrank away. Their headdresses were made of angel feathers and new bones that looked as white against the humans' skin as snow on the mountainside.

I would have flown back to the mountains if full-grown humans hadn't appeared behind the cubs. They had sharp weapons, mouths twisted in bloodthirsty grins, and atrocious shouts. When a stick someone threw hit me in my side, I woke up from the shock. I spread my wings and took off.

It wasn't easy to take off from water, but my wings carried me somewhat laboriously into the air. I got out of reach of the humans' weapons and their crude voices.

The night had fallen, and stars reflected from the rough surface of the vast water. I flew so far that I couldn't see land anywhere. I had failed. I hadn't found the safe haven in time and humans had found it before me.

The wound in my side tired me fast. After flying through two days and nights my eyes spotted land far ahead my wings gave up on me and I fell from the sky.

I didn't even hit the water before the darkness swallowed me whole.

 

* * *

 

The sun was hanging low over the horizon when a big wave brought an angel to the beach. Its big, white wings had gotten soaked in the sea's waves. The angel got stuck on the shore, motionless. A small boy who had been nearby, collecting clams in the beach water, noticed the angel and went to have a look. There was a gaping wound in the side of the angel, and its eyes were open. The boy took a raven's black feather from his eyes and brushed the angel's face before closing its eyes.

The boy pulled the angel from the water and the sand to soft, red ground. He dug a hole to the angel to sleep and covered it with red soil. The boy sat beside the grave until the last rays of the sun had disappeared behind the sea and the moon came into the sky. He stood up and let the moon shed light on his big, white wings.


End file.
